Biomedical Question Answering: A Survey of Approaches and Challenges

Automatic Question Answering (QA) has been successfully applied in various domains such as search engines and chatbots. Biomedical QA (BQA), as an emerging QA task, enables innovative applications to effectively perceive, access and understand complex biomedical knowledge. There have been tremendous developments of BQA in the past two decades, which we classify into 5 distinctive approaches: classic, information retrieval, machine reading comprehension, knowledge base and question entailment approaches. In this survey, we introduce available datasets and representative methods of each BQA approach in detail. Despite the developments, BQA systems are still immature and rarely used in real-life settings. We identify and characterize several key challenges in BQA that might lead to this issue, and discuss some potential future directions to explore.Comment: In submission to ACM Computing Survey

Tetra­aqua­bis(2-oxo-1,2-dihydro­quinoline-4-carboxyl­ato-κO 4)nickel(II)

In the title compound, [Ni(C10H6NO3)2(H2O)4], the central NiII atom is located on an inversion center and coordinated in a slightly distorted octa­hedral geometry by two O atoms from two 2-oxo-1,2-dihydro­quinoline-4-carboxyl­ate ligands and four water mol­ecules, all of which act as monodentate ligands. The crystal structure features an extensive network of inter­molecular hydrogen-bonding inter­actions (O—H⋯O and N—H⋯O) and offset face-to-face π–π stacking inter­actions [centroid–centroid distances = 3.525 (3) and 3.281 (5) Å]

A free-space coupled, large-active-area superconducting microstrip single-photon detector for photon-counting time-of-flight imaging

Numerous applications at the photon-starved regime require a free-space coupling singlephoton detector with a large active area, low dark count rate (DCR), and superior time resolutions. Here,we developed a superconducting microstrip single-photon detector (SMSPD), with a large active area of 260 um in diameter, a DCR of ~5 kcps, and a low time jitter of ~171 ps, operated at near-infrared of 1550 nm. As a demonstration, we applied the detector to a single-pixel galvanometer scanning system and successfully reconstructed object information in depth and intensity using a time-correlated photon counting technology.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure

The role of glucocorticoids in increasing cardiovascular risk

IntroductionDifferent studies provide conflicting evidence regarding the potential for glucocorticoids (GCs) to increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases. This study performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine the correlation between GCs and cardiovascular risk, including major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), death from any cause, coronary heart disease (CHD), heart failure (HF), and stroke.MethodsWe performed a comprehensive search in PubMed and Embase (from inception to June 1, 2022). Studies that reported relative risk (RR) estimates with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the associations of interest were included.ResultsA total of 43 studies with 15,572,512 subjects were included. Patients taking GCs had a higher risk of MACE (RR = 1.27, 95% CI: 1.15–1.40), CHD (RR = 1.25, 95% CI: 1.11–1.41), and HF (RR = 1.92, 95% CI: 1.51–2.45). The MACE risk increased by 10% (95% CI: 6%–15%) for each additional gram of GCs cumulative dose or by 63% (95% CI: 46%–83%) for an additional 10 μg daily dose. The subgroup analysis suggested that not inhaled GCs and current GCs use were associated with increasing MACE risk. Similarly, GCs were linked to an increase in absolute MACE risk of 13.94 (95% CI: 10.29–17.58) cases per 1,000 person-years.ConclusionsAdministration of GCs is possibly related with increased risk for MACE, CHD, and HF but not increased all-cause death or stroke. Furthermore, it seems that the risk of MACE increased with increasing cumulative or daily dose of GCs

Ultrahigh-sensitivity label-free singlemode- tapered no core-singlemode fiber immunosensor for Listeria monocytogenes detection

A challenge for optical fiber biosensor is to achieve ultrahigh sensitivity with narrow full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the spectrum. To address this challenge, an ultrahigh-sensitivity microfiber interferometer fiber ring laser (FRL) biosensor is proposed and investigated for Listeria monocytogenes (L. monocytogenes) detection. The fiber biosensor is composed of a singlemode- tapered no core-singlemode (STNS) fiber configuration, which is functionalized with the anti-L. monocytogenes antibodies. An Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier is applied to the sensor to excite laser and thus reduce the FWHM of the spectrum, which significantly improved the limit of detection (LoD). The proposed STNS FRL biosensor has excellent reproducibility, specificity and sensitivity for L. monocytogenes. The developed STNS FRL biosensor can directly detect L. monocytogenes cells with LoD as low as 1.0 cell/mL, indicating the capability for detecting single cell of L. monocytogenes. Real lettuce and milk samples have been tested and test result in lettuce and milk samples has deviations within ±30% from that of Phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) for L. monocytogenes concentrations vary from 101 to 103 cells/mL(g). The developed STNS FRL biosensor has ultrahigh sensitivity, good stability, reproducibility, and specificity, which has potential applications in diseases/medical diagnostics